Aral Balkan

MeeboMe is a small Flash application that you can add to your site to chat with your visitors. You log in to the Meebo web site and see visitors to your site in your buddy list. Either they can contact you or you can randomly strike up a conversation with one of them.

I don't like having to log in to a web site to have my buddy list but it's a very cool concept nonetheless. Hopefully, they'll come out with a desktop client in the near future. (Or open their API, so we can create one in Apollo, perhaps!)

Techcrunch has more information on MeeboMe.

[Update] MeeboMe appears to be more trouble than it is worth. I found myself not bothering to sign in on their homepage and keep it open all the time. Also, according to Kristof, it apparrently crashes Firefox 1.5.0.5 with Gnash 0.7.1 on Ubuntu 6.06 64bit. I just switched it off.

Comments

• Looks pretty cool. Have you talked to anyone with it yet? If so, what do you think about it?

  by Jason Fincanon on 2006-08-02 22:31:20

• Hi Jason, Haven't talked to anyone (but myself). It sometimes displays you as offline even when you're not. Currently, I'm wondering if it's actually worth the trouble. It might be easier to hand-roll something using Red5.

  by aral on 2006-08-02 23:43:20

• Ok, I can't help it... I just gotta try it myself.

  by Jason Fincanon on 2006-08-03 03:33:27

• [...] After reading Aral’s post about trying out MeeboMe, I checked it out and just had to give it a shot myself. I guess I’ll see how it goes for a few days or so and then decide if I want to keep it or not. [...]

  by The FlashCanon » Blog Archive » Following Aral’s MeeboMe lead on 2006-08-03 03:37:42

• The service appears to be really unreliable. I had to refresh the Meebo web site three times to log in this time around. Also, I haven't been able to have a single conversation (although I saw that people had pinged me when I was offline.)

  by aral on 2006-08-03 11:57:06

• Well, I just had my first conversation (with Johan Lopes) :)

  by aral on 2006-08-03 13:27:37

• I'd definitely agree with you on the service being unreliable. I put it on my site last night and was able to log in, but if I went to check on another machine it would show me as offline after a few minutes. This morning it's telling me I can't log in because my username or password is wrong even tho I'm using the same credentials. How ever, I know it's still in alpha so I think I'll give it a little time before I give up on it.

  by Jason Fincanon on 2006-08-03 13:44:15

• I added it yesterday to my site, and I've yet to have any difficulties. I use meebo day in, day out, as my day to day IM client so it's very good for me.

  by Mark Mandel on 2006-08-04 01:36:27

• I finally had my first conversation on it... with my wife... in the same room.

  by Jason Fincanon on 2006-08-04 02:19:08

• I am really impressed! I see you have successfully installed meebo me on your WordPress blog! Nice blog! I have really got to get me one of these meebo me's!!

  by Al B on 2006-08-08 05:22:36

• Seems to crash Firefox 1.5.0.5 with Gnash 0.7.1 on Ubuntu 6.06 64bit. Gnash is known to be buggy, but there is no other 64bit flash plugin for linux. This is what I did to view your site without crashing my browser: $ echo 127.0.0.1 widget.meebo.com >> /etc/hosts

  by Kristof Neirynck on 2006-08-20 23:30:09

• Hey Kristof, Meebo appears to be more trouble than its worth. I found I wasn't really using it (logging in on the site is a drag.) I just switched it off.

  by aral on 2006-08-22 10:59:26